***
The alarm went off too soon. Kimber’s dreams were filled with patients he was trying to treat, except more and more flooded into the ER, and he was the sole staff member present. Left alone to deal with dozens of hurt people, he desperately ran from person to person, struggling to stop the bleeding and help everyone before additional patients appeared.
He awoke stressed out and exhausted.
“Doc, you need to go,” said Igor, opening the door.
I was really hoping he was part of my dream, Kimber thought. “I know. I’m up. Did they call for me over the intercom?”
“Not exactly.”
Kimber stood and took a moment to stretch back and regain his bearings. Digging in his pocket, he pulled out a squishy candy bar, set it down, then pulled his phone out.
“I’m calling the police, Igor. You probably don’t want to be here when they arrive,” he said and gave a stern look to the man propping open the door with his body.
“They’re already here.”
“What?”
“Have a look.” Igor motioned to the windows behind Tish’s desk.
The blinds were closed, and daylight outlined the edges of the window.
Kimber crossed to the window, ready to call Igor’s buff. He peeked through the blinds. Dozens of police cars had surrounded the building and created a barrier, behind which swarms of reporters, hospital staff members and others waited among fire trucks, a truck marked Bomb Squad, and SWAT teams.
“What happened?” he breathed.
“Nothing yet,” Igor said.
“Is your boss trying to take out the hospital?”
“She’s not behind any of this.”
Kimber released the blinds and faced the door. “Then what’s going on, Igor?”
“We need to get you out of here.”
“Why?” Kimber crossed his arms.
“Boss says you need to leave, so you need to leave.”
“First, she’s not my boss. Second, I’m not going anywhere if there are people here in danger or who need my help.” He gathered up his things. “You can tell me what’s going on or …”
Igor didn’t speak.
I’ll find out myself. Kimber pushed past the large man and started down the hallway.
“Jermaine is here.”
Igor’s words stopped him.
“He took everyone in your department hostage when he couldn’t find you.”
Kimber turned to face Igor. “He’s here?”
“Downstairs. Along with a bunch of his henchmen and enough explosives to take out the entire building.”
“For me.”
“You helped Reader. That makes you his enemy.”
Kimber studied Igor briefly. After his apartment building fire, he wasn’t about to let anyone else get hurt because of his association with the Savages. He dropped his belongings onto the ground. “Tell your boss I’m not one of her minions. I’m not going to let Jermaine blow up the hospital just to get to me.” Whirling, he stalked away.
“Doc, boss won’t be happy.”
“She won’t be surprised either. By now, she knows I’ll always do the right thing!” Kimber retorted.
He ran down the hall and to the elevator. Punching the button to descend, he ran a hand through his hair and paced nervously. Confronting Jermaine Savage was the last thing he expected to happen today. But if the choice were between his life and those of the hundreds of people in the hospital, Kimber was going to save everyone else, no matter what Reader thought of his actions.
“Boss wants to talk to you.” Igor had trailed him. He held out a phone.
Kimber glanced at it, tempted to ignore half of the reason the ER had been taken hostage, before anger got the best of him. He snatched the phone.
“Keladry –” he started.
“Reader,” she corrected him.
“Whatever. Tell Igor to back off.”
“If you surrender to Jermaine, he’ll torture you and murder everyone else.”
“If he has me, he won’t need everyone else!”
“Exactly.”
Kimber drew a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be in the middle of this. I’m going down there, Keladry, and I don’t care what you think.”
“Doc, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t be a hero, and don’t believe anything my brother tells you.”
“I’m no hero, but I’m not an asshole, either,” Kimber snapped. The elevator dinged, and its doors opened. “I’m not going to let anyone get hurt because of me. Call off your nanny and get him out of harm’s way.” He handed the phone back to Igor, who accepted it.
Kimber walked into the elevator, wired and worried, and punched the button for the ground floor until the door closed.
The ten-second elevator ride to the first floor was the longest of his life. Uncertain what to expect from the second Savage twin, he couldn’t stop thinking about the lives he had unwittingly put in the crossfire of psychopaths by helping Keladry.
The elevator doors opened. Five men in black stood outside the lift, weapons pointed at the interior of the elevator. One of them stepped in to block the door from closing while another motioned for him to exit.
Kimber’s heart began to race at the sight of them, and all traces of his exhaustion melted beneath the fire of adrenaline in his blood. His skin crawled with awareness of the weapons pointed at him.
“My name is Doctor Kimber Wellington,” he said, automatically raising his arms to show he wasn’t armed. “I believe your boss is looking for me.”
“Follow me,” one of them ordered him.
Kimber lowered his arms and obeyed. Four of them escorted him through the vacant hallways. He peered into offices and patient rooms as they passed. He was relieved to see all the rooms empty. At least some people had already been evacuated or escaped.
The moment he stepped into the emergency room area, his hope the situation wasn’t as bad as he imagined plummeted. The department was jammed with the suffering and staff members alike. They were huddled on the floor, everyone seated or lying down. There was hardly room to move from the sheer amount of people crammed into the ER. It was eerily quiet, aside from the occasional moan and stifled sobbing. The tension and body heat combined to render the large area uncomfortably hot and the air charged.
All eyes turned to him, and Kimber’s breath caught. He had never wanted to be the center of attention anywhere, and the way the people regarded him – with a combination of hope, gratitude, and fear – left him feeling sick to his stomach. Did they look at him as if he were their savior, because of his antics after the fire last weekend? Or because, now that he was present, they would be set free?
Behind the nurse’s station, he saw several bodies laid out under white sheets.
There was no worse death than to go out feeling hopeless, powerless and afraid.
Fury originating from a place too deep for him to identify filled him. The idea people had died because some psychopath decided to take the most vulnerable people imaginable hostage filled him with more emotion than he had experienced in years.
“Where is he?” he demanded of one of the henchmen.
“Busy. He’ll be with you –”
“No. Now.”
The beefy man glanced at him then back. He lifted his chin to another of the men, who trotted away, down the hallway leading to the first floor emergency operating suites and ICU.
Seething yet calm, Kimber waited to meet the brother of Keladry.
Jermaine Savage didn’t keep him waiting long. The moment the tall, athletic man entered the ER, Kimber almost cursed. He had treated too many people during his twenty four hour shift to recall anyone’s face with clarity – except for the first man.
Cleaned up with no sign of a head wound, the patient who had snagged his coat as he crossed the floor of the ER the day before still wore his bloodied clothing and a smile.
“Hey, Doc,” he said. “I’m all nice and healed
.”
Kimber was not amused. “I’m here, Jermaine. Let these people go.”
“It’s not Jermaine. It’s Thunder,” Jermaine corrected him.
“I don’t give a fuck what you call yourself! Your issue is with me, so let’s deal with it!”
“That’s no way to talk to the future supervillain of Sand City.” Jermaine tilted his head and took a step back, remaining a solid five yards away.
“Villains aren’t real. You’re a criminal whose father tortured you into believing you had superpowers and a purpose to justify your own fucked up upbringing,” Kimber retorted, warmed by anger. “You’ve held the city in fear long enough. It’s time people saw you for what you are.”
Silence. Even the moaning stopped.
Jermaine’s features turned scarlet, and his smile faded. “Careful, Doc,” he warned. He closed the distance between them and paused, toe to toe with Kimber. “I’ve rigged this place to blow.” He pointed to the walls and the blobby blocks of gray material Kimber assumed were explosives. “You piss me off, I kill everyone here.”
Kimber glared at him, unafraid. “You’re a coward. Hurting innocent people because why? Your daddy didn’t love you? This makes you feel like you have some sort of control?”
“Enough, Doc.” Jermaine snapped.
“Let’s finish this. Just you and me.”
“There’s nothing I’d like better than to peel your skin off and listen to you scream,” Jermaine said with a mirthless smile. His eyes were cold. “I have a feeling fucking up a few of these people would probably knock that defiance right out of you.”
“Villain or criminal, if you hurt these people, you will answer for it. If not to the police, then to someone else.”
“Daddy pays the cops enough to keep them away.”
“You’re used to working in the shadows, Jermaine. This is broad daylight. What do you think will happen if the footage from the ER cameras is posted online and aired by the media? Seems like it’d be bad for business. Will your daddy applaud your efforts or cut you loose?” Kimber had no idea if what he said was true, but he hoped the business side of being a villain would be enough to force Jermaine into sparing the lives of the innocent people trapped in the ER.
“Smart.” Jermaine backed away and turned. “I can see why my sister likes you.”
You have no idea what that woman thinks of me, Kimber answered silently. After their heated exchanges, he had a feeling Keladry hated him.
“You’ll leave here and accept what I have planned for you without resisting?” Jermaine asked, glancing over his shoulder at Kimber.
“I will,” Kimber replied.
“This might be fun.” Jermaine motioned to the guards across the room from him. “Very well. I’ll let these people go.”
The phone in his pocket vibrated, and he pulled it free. Placing the phone against his ear, he went still, listening.
Kimber waited, irritated by the villain. The resemblance between brother and sister was evident in their features, from the large, dark eyes and chiseled jawbones to the shapes of their noses.
Jermaine lowered the phone with a scowl.
“Seems I’ve got bigger fish to fry,” he said and pushed the cell back in his pocket. He made the sign for his men to rally and exit. “I’ll be in touch, Doc.”
Kimber watched, startled, as the villain and his henchmen filed out of the ER, exiting through a side door.
“Umbrella!” Jermaine called before stepping outside. “I can’t risk sunlight!”
Uncertain why Jermaine was leaving without him, Kimber waited for the Savage twin to turn around and return for him or order one of his minions to gun him down.
The phone in his pocket dinged, and Kimber reached for it absently, eyes on the men in black making their way out of the hospital.
Evacuate. Now, read the message. The number was identified only as unknown. Kimber’s gaze returned to the retreating villains and then went to the plastic explosives along the walls.
Kimber looked around at the amount of people crammed in the room. “We all need to leave. Exit through the main doors.”
No one moved.
“Now!” he shouted.
The people around him jerked in response and began moving. Kimber motioned Gary over.
“Good to see you.” Gary forced a smile.
“Thanks. We need to get these people out of here immediately. Ask staff members to help those who can’t walk for themselves.”
“Got it.” Gary moved away.
Kimber spun and raced down the hallway to the consultation rooms. These rooms, and the two offices in this hall, were packed. He began shouting for everyone to move and to help those who couldn’t walk for themselves. The ensuing frenzy of activity swarmed from the corridors into the ER and out into the crescent shaped driveway reserved for ambulances.
He pulled the fire alarm to alert anyone else in the building and then bent over to help carry an unconscious man out of the ER. He hadn’t walked two steps into the driveway before an explosion ripped through the ER. Heat rolled over him, and debris pelted his exposed skin. Kimber was flung to the ground by the force and lay still, momentarily stunned and breathless. His ears rang, and smoke blinded him. Cuts and bruises stung from points all over his body. As far as he could tell, they were the worst of his injuries, aside from bruised ribs from his impact with the ground. A police officer shouting through a megaphone somewhere was soon drowned out by cries of fear and panic.
Coughing from the smoke and dust, Kimber waited for his senses to stabilize. Scared and angry, he couldn’t help thinking about the Savage twins and how his life had gone to shit since he met one of them. People died every time his path intersected with one of the twin’s – or whenever they decided to seek him out. They were too selfish, too damaged, to understand their impact on the world or perhaps, they just didn’t care.
As he lay still, recovering, he couldn’t help the dread settling into his stomach as he realized he was in the middle of the twin’s war. Whether or not he belonged in it, he had become as dangerous as the twins. Wherever he went, he would draw them and their danger to him and those around him.
I have to fix this. Kimber tried to push himself up. He knew where to find Keladry. He could start there. As he moved, he became aware of the thick, warm rivulet of blood traveling down the back of his neck and soaking his clothing.
A wave of darkness swept over him, and he tumbled into unconsciousness.
Ten: Villains never kill heroes the first time they meet
Kimber recognized the scent of disinfectant before his eyes opened to confirm he was in a hospital. He was achy with muscular pain, and his chest hurt to breathe deeply. The back of his head was numb. He stretched back to feel the numb spot. His fingertips met the roughness of a bandage stretched across his skull.
Assessing he’d been hit by debris, his eyes snapped open, and he sat up, assessing the bag connected to the IV in his hand. He read the contents – nothing more than a standard saline solution – before starting to relax. His mind wasn’t woolly or his senses dulled; they hadn’t given him painkillers, just local anesthesia.
The hospital room didn’t resemble any place he had seen in Sand General. The walls were a calming shade of blue, the bed too comfortable, and the big screen television across the room nowhere near as small as those at his normal workplace. The floors were carpet, too. There were other signs he’d been taken to an upscale clinic instead of being treated at Sand General.
His clothing was folded on a dresser. He sat, tested his body, then swung his legs off the bed.
Kimber removed the catheter in his hand and stood. Aside from remaining dizziness, and the tightness of his chest, he felt rested and well. A quick self-examination revealed nicks and bruises covering his body. He crossed to his clothing and changed out of the hospital gown into his jeans. Tugging on a t-shirt, he paused when the scent of freshly laundered clothing reached his nose.
It wasn’
t his brand of detergent or fabric softener. He pulled the shirt the rest of the way down and looked around briefly for more belongings, namely his phone, before reaching back to feel his head again.
He had around eight stitches. The fact they let him sleep indicated no concussion, and the lack of painkillers meant it was likely a superficial wound. Satisfied his well being was in no real danger, Kimber checked the room for any sign of his shoes without finding them or his phone.
He opened the door and stepped into a hallway very unlike those of the hospitals and clinics he had worked in. It resembled the hall of an expensive hotel with plush carpet, stone walls, antique furniture, paintings with heavy golden frames and doors similar to his lining each side. Doorframes were thick oak, and the lighting thirty feet overhead wrought iron.
“Hello?” he called.
No answer.
Puzzled as to where he was, Kimber started down the hallway. Another hall intersected with this one. It opened into a waiting area and nurses station – both of which were furnished with antiques, oil paintings, lead crystal bowls and other displays of wealth. One of the nurses stood when he entered the area.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“Private clinic.”
No shit. No charity hospital had this kind of money.
“If you’ll follow me.”
His gaze went from what appeared to be a genuine Picasso hanging on the wall of the waiting room to the nurse in purple scrubs walking down another hallway.
Kimber trailed her as requested. This hall was short compared to the one with all the rooms and emptied out onto a wide veranda containing a fire pit and several seating areas. Only one other person was present, a man with salt and pepper hair. Kimber’s gaze was drawn to the spectacular view over the railing. The setting sun had painted the sky in brilliant orange, pink, purple, and yellow.
Where the hell am I? He thought, mesmerized by the scenic view of Sand City at sunset from a high enough elevation, he was able to see the river that wound through the city. He had never paid much attention to the surroundings of the city, never noticed this tree-covered mountain overlooking it.
“Have a seat, Doctor Wellington,” said the gentleman whose back was to him.
Kimber went to the chair beside the stranger and tensed.
General Savage was even more imposing in person. A bear of a man with harsh features and a mask covering the upper half of his face, the alleged supervillain was gazing out over the city he controlled through a combination of fear and crime.
“What do you want from me?” Kimber asked quietly.
“To talk.” The supervillain tapped the arm of the chair beside him.
Kimber sat, not because General Savage wanted him to, but because he suddenly realized how he was going to deal with the twins. If they weren’t going to try to curb their behavior, maybe he could convince their father to rein them in.
Stretching his neck back, Kimber grimaced. He was stiff and sore, but at least he was starting to feel more like himself and less like he woke up in a stranger’s body.
“No painkillers,” General Savage said.
“Pardon?” Kimber replied.
“I told them not to use painkillers. Didn’t want to trigger your addiction.”
Kimber’s breath caught.
“You’re surprised I’d look into your background before inviting you here?” General Savage asked, amused.
“Invitation implies you asked me instead of kidnapping me,” Kimber answered.
“I figured it was time for us to meet.”
“How so?”
General Savage handed him a newspaper. It was dated what he assumed was today, the day after the incident at the ER.
“Wow. I was out for a day,” he muttered.
Doctor Hero Stands up to Villain, Saves More Lives! Screamed the headline. Sand City Finally Has a Superhero! Claimed a second.
“I wish they would stop this,” Kimber muttered and dropped the newspaper on the ground. How long would it take for someone to discover the truth, that the fire and ER incident were his fault because of his association with the crime family?
“You don’t want to be a superhero?” General Savage asked.
“Of course not. I want your family out of my life.”
General Savage retrieved the newspaper. “Even Reader?”
“Especially Reader. She’s the reason this mess started.”
“Interesting. I thought you had a part in this.” He held out the newspaper again.
“A part in what?” Kimber asked. “The ER incident?”
“No. This.” The supervillain flipped the paper and tapped a much smaller article on the front page.
Kimber accepted the paper reluctantly and scanned the title.
Apartment Fire Victims All Win the Lottery on Same Day
He re-read it and then continued on to the rest of the article, which gave no real insight into what had happened. It listed the names and ages of all the people who won and the date of the drawing. The chances of all of them winning on the same day was too coincidental to be real.
“What does this have to do with me? Or being here?” Kimber asked.
“Considering none of them had a ticket, I’d say it’s pretty lucky your former neighbors all won the lottery.”
“You can’t believe I had anything to do with this. If you found out about Chicago, then you know I don’t have that kind of money.”
“No, but I do,” General Savage replied. “My family has a policy of steal it, keep it. Ninety million dollars went missing from one of my accounts. It’s not an unusual occurrence, but the kids usually don’t take that much. It was funneled into the lottery commission, which was paid off to announce winners, not winning numbers.”
Kimber listened.
“You didn’t put Reader up to this?” the supervillain asked, looking at him straight on for the first time. His eyes were cold, his stare direct.
“No,” Kimber replied. “You think she did this?” He lifted the paper.
“I know one of them did. Thunder wouldn’t dare oppose me after last year, but Reader … she has always been too different.”
Igor’s explanation of the twins circled in Kimber’s brain as General Savage spoke. He recalled Igor’s hesitancy to say exactly what had been done to Jermaine, and how the dedicated nanny held out hope for Keladry to become the good kind of supervillain. The dynamics of the crime family were beyond Kimber’s ability to understand fully, but he sensed the supervillain beside him was pleased for some reason. It couldn’t have been because of the loss of money, or Keladry giving it away to help people, which seemed to act counter to what a villain did.
“This skill of yours. How does it work?” General Savage asked.
“Skill? You mean being a doctor?”
Another unsettling, direct, unblinking look rested on Kimber. It left him wanting to shiver or perhaps, to move his chair away a few inches.
“You have a skill, just as we do. Yours appears to be blocking ours.”
“So you can’t demonstrate your superpower when I’m around,” Kimber said. He didn’t roll his eyes but wanted to. It was too convenient that the alleged villains with superpowers couldn’t actually do anything superhuman at all. How had the local media ever fallen for any of this shit?
“Correct. I assumed you were in town, rescuing people, because you chose Sand City to start your superhero career.”
“No.” Kimber snorted. “I’m a former drug addict trying to make up for shitty decisions from my past. I just want to go to work and go home to my shitty apartment. But it looks like both of those have been burnt down.”
“You seem to be an honest man.” The supervillain smiled, as if entertained by the idea someone like Kimber existed. He rose. “My people will take you back to the hospital.” He started away.
Kimber stood, caught off guard by the sudden dismissal. “That’s all you wanted to know? If I have intentions of being a superhero??
??
“I also wanted to know if you were influencing my daughter, undoing years of special conditioning.”
“You mean torturing her as a child.”
“How else do you think supervillains are made? Through personal suffering and disillusion.”
“She’s your daughter!”
“And I’ve finally found another of her weaknesses.” This smile was chilling.
Kimber frowned. Jermaine had said something similar. How could they both be so misinformed?
“Moving on,” Kimber said, not about to lose his chance to confront the criminal mastermind. “Your kids are destroying the city. Innocent people are dying horrible deaths, and the amount of money this will cost the city to clean up is far beyond the ninety million you’ve already lost.”
“Not sure about Chicago, but that’s what villains do here.”
“You can stop it.”
“Why would I want to? The winner of these games is my successor.”
“You mean the survivor, don’t you? Whichever sibling kills the other is the winner.”
“You catch on quickly, Doc,” General Savage replied. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of their way. It’ll settle down when one of them is dead.”
The words shocked Kimber, as much because they were spoken by the father of the twin who would die, as because of the callous regard he had for those caught in the crossfire.
“You can’t mean that,” Kimber whispered. “You can’t want one of your own children to die.”
“I killed my parents, my brother, my uncles, an aunt and over a hundred thousand humans to become what I am,” the supervillain said without flinching or any sign of emotion. “My children each have that potential. What I want is for them to remain focused on the prize: Sand City. Whichever one of them wants it more will win the games.”
“You’re worse than they are.”
“Where do you think they get it from?” the supervillain replied. “For some reason, my children put you in the middle of their games. I didn’t understand it at first, but after meeting you, I think I do. I see opportunity here as well as they do. I’m glad I made you part of this.”
Kimber didn’t want to know what that meant. “If you won’t stop them, I’ll find someone who will.”
“Good luck.” General Savage disappeared into the darker interior of the compound on whose veranda Kimber stood.
What the fuck was wrong with everyone in this family? Kimber couldn’t imagine how this much dysfunction existed in one place. Compared to her brother and father, Keladry was beginning to look moderate, despite being willing to burn down an entire apartment building while its residents slept.
Lifting the paper once more, Kimber studied the article. Had Keladry really stolen her father’s money and made millionaires out of the homeless families from the apartment fire? If so, why did the General want to know if Kimber was involved?
… If you want to help someone, help those people who are homeless because you decided to burn down my apartment building.
The words he’d spoken to her in anger emerged from the depths of his mind, and he began to connect the dots.
Keladry had acted because of what he said. Her father noticed, as did her brother. They did some digging and found … him.
“You did this because of me? For me? In my name?” he asked the newspaper under his breath, not understanding her motivation. She had been an absolute bitch to deal with as a patient and every second he’d known her since she left. How could anyone mistake her motivations as being directed, or influenced, by him?
In the end, it was too far of a stretch for him to believe he had been the one to convince her to do anything, let alone something decent. It had to be a coincidence.
“Mister Wellington.” A woman in a driver’s cap stood in the hallway. “Please follow me.”
Kimber left the newspaper on a nearby chair and trailed her into the compound. They walked through long hallways and short, past intersections leading into other parts of the supervillain’s lair and down into an underground basement featuring dozens of antique and collectible cars. The driver slid behind the wheel of a black Rolls Royce.
Kimber got in back and put on his seatbelt. He gazed out the window as the vehicle whisked him down a winding road from the top of the mountain he didn’t know existed to the bottom and onward to the freeway.
He dreaded discovering who had been hurt and how bad the damage was to the hospital but found himself preoccupied by another thought.
Was it really possible that Keladry had given the residents of his former apartment building money for the sole reason that he told her to?
The baffling notion she had helped the same people whose homes she had destroyed without a second thought sent Kimber’s mind spinning in loops. To think Keladry could modify the behavior and a world view beaten into her since she was a child, that she had done something almost good, because he had told her it was the right thing to do …
Something about her has always confused me, Kimber admitted. He had never viewed her as strictly a patient after the first night in his apartment. He couldn’t explain what he didn’t understand, except that Keladry captured his attention in a way no one else in his recent history had. Was it their connection, the night she told him who had almost killed her? The sense of destiny that took hold of him whenever they crossed paths?
It was also possible there was no correlation between what he said and what Keladry did, that he was once again trying to read too deeply into the words and intentions of a woman who belonged in a psych ward. Kimber tried to reason his way out of thinking well of the crazy woman, but kept circling back to the newspaper article.
Keladry and the rest of her family were lunatics.
Then why did he once more find it impossible to purge her completely from his thoughts?
Eleven: Villains create heroes
Kimber stepped out of the Rolls and closed the door. The sleek, dark car slid away, leaving him on the sidewalk. His bare feet were immersed in a cold puddle, and he contemplated the latest problem in front of him.
One wing of the hospital appeared to be out of commission, if the darkened windows were any indication. The ER and ambulance entrance were cordoned off by police tape. He was effectively homeless and possibly, jobless, unless the administration had transferred the ER staff temporarily into other departments. Familiar despair slid through him, though he tried to tell himself this time, his loss of identity and purpose was different. He had done it to himself in Chicago.
In Sand City, he’d had both stripped from him.
The circumstances were different, but his feelings remained the same.
He had failed. Again.
Kimber wiped his face with his hands, trying to clear away the negative thoughts threatening to drag him down. After his meeting with the city’s supervillain, he couldn’t help wondering what would come next. The city had to be out of surprises for him by now. Even if it weren’t, he began to think nothing else could faze him again.
“Doctor Wellington?” a curious voice called.
Kimber glanced towards the group of people crossing the road then back, recognizing the nurses Gary and Anna. Warmth crept up his neck as he realized he had neither shoes nor jacket to keep the drizzle off. He looked homeless – which he was.
“We’ve been worried sick! You disappeared yesterday after the bombing!” Anna exclaimed.
They excused themselves from the other members of their party and approached him. Kimber shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to portray normal, whatever that was anymore.
“Yeah. I ended up in a medical center across town,” he hedged. “How about you? You guys okay?”
“Bruises,” Gary replied. “Because of you, we all made it out of there alive.”
Except for the three people who expired while I napped, Kimber said silently, recalling the bodies under sheets that had been tucked away from public sight behind the nurses?
?? station.
Gary and Anna were smiling at him as if they truly believed he had saved them. Kimber wanted to dissuade them with the truth but couldn’t muster the will to reveal how he’d been responsible.
“What’re they doing with the staff while the ER is rebuilt?” he asked instead.
“We’re all on admin leave for a week. We’re supposed to heal up and attend a group counseling session,” Anna answered. “I think they’re trying to figure out what to do with everyone.”
“Tish?”
“She’s on admin leave, too,” Gary answered. “The explosion took out the offices on the fourth floor.”
There goes any shot I have at a place to sleep, Kimber thought. “This has been an awful couple of weeks,” he murmured, eyes across the street on the bombed out ER.
“Oh, that’s right. You’ve been living at the hospital since your apartment building burned down,” Gary remarked.
“Do you need a place to stay?” Anna asked.
Embarrassed, Kimber attempted to formulate a response. His hesitation was answer enough to his new friends.
“You’re staying with us!” Gary said.
“No, I couldn’t –”
“Do you have anywhere else to go?” Anna asked.
“I don’t even have shoes,” Kimber said, releasing the breath he had been holding. “But I really don’t want to impose.”
“We won’t hear of you refusing,” Gary replied firmly.
Kimber studied him, torn as always by the attempts of those around him to get to know him better and his innate fear of disappointing everyone who mattered to him.
What other option did he have? Keladry’s townhouse?
“Maybe for a day or two,” he allowed. “I’ll have to find a new place.”
“And shoes,” Anna teased with a smile.
“Come on!” Gary motioned for him to follow. Anna slid her hand into his, and the couple walked down the street, towards one of the cars parked alongside the road.
Kimber followed, unable to shake the feeling it was wrong of him to accept help from anyone. He didn’t deserve their kindness, and they didn’t deserve the supervillain messes he attracted.
But he went, because he had no other choice. He didn’t even have his wallet or any belongings. How long would it take to re-establish his identity so he could access his bank account?
Anger trickled through him. This time, it wasn’t directed at members of the Savage family but at himself. How did he continually end up in such dire straits? Would he flee Sand City as he had Chicago? If so, where would he go?
Pensive, he managed to make small talk with Gary and Anna as they drove to their apartment downtown. They lived a few buildings over from Kimber’s former apartment, in an area noticeably nicer than the run down street he had chosen.
It was with some relief he stepped into their flat. His feet were almost numb from the wet and cold. His toes sank into the thick carpet, and he glanced around, beginning to understand just how horrible his place had been. The carpet at Gary’s appeared new, and his walls showed neither cracks nor water damage. Anna led him to the guestroom, which contained a day bed and chest of drawers, on top of which sat a television and aging pink DVD player.
“It’s not much. I hope it’s okay,” Anna said.
“It’s perfect. More than I’ve had the past week and a half.” Kimber saw no flaws with the warm, dry, pleasant room.
“Gary has some spare clothes in the bottom two drawers. You’re welcome to them.”
“Thanks.”
“There are tons of shampoos and shower gels in the guest bathroom, too.”
“She buys them then uses them for two days and buys more,” Gary complained.
“I’ll eventually use them! I alternate!” she retorted.
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes with a smile. “We’re grilling out on the patio for dinner. Hamburgers okay?”
“I’m vegetarian,” Kimber replied.
“So am I!” Anna said. “Don’t worry. I have a killer recipe for grilled veggies. I’ve got you covered.”
Kimber glanced between the happy nurses. “You have no idea how grateful I am,” he said with more feeling than he intended. “I promise to pay you back for everything.”
“No worries,” Gary said. “We’ll leave you alone to settle in. Dinner in an hour?”
“Sounds great.”
“If you need us to look at your head, just let one of us know. Anna is a nurse practioner.”
Kimber nodded.
The couple exited and closed the door behind them. Kimber’s gaze lingered on the door, and he found himself almost smiling, despite the uncertainty of his feelings. He had missed friendship far more than he thought he would.
The quiet, clean, small guestroom was an oasis from the nightmare his life was rapidly becoming. He changed out of his damp clothing and took a hot shower before digging through Gary’s clothing for a pair of sweatpants and long t-shirt. He flipped on the television to help distract his thoughts.
Returning to the bathroom, once the mirror had de-fogged, he shifted to see the bandage on the back of his head. Kimber peeled it off, prepared to assess the damage and grateful the local anesthesia had managed to keep the pain numbed for a few hours. After his talk with General Savage, he didn’t feel up to dealing with pain yet.
Setting the used bandage down, he leaned forward with a frown.
The hair around the wound had been shaved. The wound itself was nothing more than a scar.
Kimber touched it gently. The stitches he had felt earlier were gone, leaving behind a ridge of scar tissue where none had been before.
It was the second time in as many days where his wound had disappeared.
“Weird,” he breathed. He straightened and tossed the bandage, not sure what to think of the wound that wasn’t there. It wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened the past two weeks, so he shook his head and returned to his temporary bedroom to rest before dinner.
The news was on, and he found himself watching for any mention of Keladry. The local station was reporting on several more explosions that rocked the city at various times during the past twenty four hours, including those he was aware of and about four more he hadn’t heard about. Jermaine was blamed for two and Keladry for the remaining two. Their involvement reaffirmed his conviction not to have anything to do with either.
The city was being terrorized by the Savages. The same question he’d been wrestling with since shortly after arriving to the city circulated through his mind. Why didn’t any of the five million residents of the metro area try to stop the Savage family?
He reached for the remote to change the channel, tired of being frustrated by the twins, when his attention was caught by the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen.
Hero doctor applies for the position of Sand City superhero. More at 10.
Kimber’s brow furrowed. He’d been referred to as the hero doctor in the newspapers, but he hadn’t applied to anyone for anything.
“Please let that be someone else,” he growled and clicked the television off.
Unease slid through him. He rose and stretched his stiff body, trying to relieve the wired tension he’d experienced since losing his apartment.
A tap at the door distracted him from his light calisthenics.
“Hey, Doc,” Gary said, cracking the door open.
“It’s Kimber,” he replied with a smile. “You took me in like a stray. It’s only right for you to call me by my first name.”
“Alrighty. Hey, Kimber.” Gary smiled. He slid into the room and closed the door behind him. “You have a visitor.”
Kimber’s smile faded. “Visitor?”
“Think you can get her to autograph my cards?” Gary whispered and handed him a set of what appeared to be five baseball cards. Kimber peered at them more closely. Each of the cards depicted beautiful Keladry Savage in a different pose and attire.
Fuck. Kimber ac
cepted them numbly. The moment he thought he was done with the Savages, one of them pulled him back into their twisted web. Hardening himself for the confrontation to come, he lifted his gaze to meet Gary’s eyes.
“I can’t believe you know her!” The nurse was grinning, excitement on his features. “But I guess it makes sense.”
“Not to me,” Kimber replied.
“You’re going to be a superhero. Of course you know her.”
“How … oh. The news.”
Gary nodded. “Ask her if she’ll make them out to Gary,” he added. “Is that cool? Do you think she’ll mind?”
“I’ll ask,” Kimber forced himself to say, not about to insult his host.
Gary opened the door and left, moving into the hallway. His expression turned adoring as he smiled wildly and stared at the leather-clad frame of Keladry in the hallway.
Kimber was far less pleased to see her. He motioned for her to enter and closed the door, irritated yet unable to stop his eyes from traveling down her body. She carried the backpack he had left in the hospital hallway with Igor before confronting her brother. With some relief, he realized his wallet was in there. He wouldn’t have to wait weeks to recreate his identity or intrude into Gary’s life by staying too long.
“This is an improvement,” she said with a look around the room.
“What do you want?” he demanded quietly.
Keladry set down his backpack on the bed before facing him. “We lost track of you for almost an entire day.”
He waited.
She gazed at him expectantly.
“It’s none of your business where I was,” he said finally. He held out the cards to her.
She snatched them and pulled a pen from her tool belt. “What’s his name?”
“Gary.”
He watched her sign the cards and place them on the dresser. The air between them held a familiar tension, one he wanted to assume was purely physical attraction. It wasn’t possible to be immune to someone as gorgeous as Keladry, until she murdered someone in front of him. That tended to change his outlook of the beauty.
“You didn’t come here for autographs,” he said.
“I came to make sure you’re safe.”
Kimber blinked, not expecting the response. “Because suddenly you care about something other than becoming a supervillain?”
Keladry gazed up at him. She pulled something from a pocket and handed it to him.
He accepted the folded up paper and opened it.
Superhero Application
She had completed most of the fields on the form, and his jaw went slack as he read the titles of each section. Aside from basic biographical details, the form asked for such information as Superpower(s) Claimed; Weaknesses; and Arch-nemesis(es)
Keladry had identified his superpower as the ability to block a villain’s powers, his weaknesses as caring too much for everyone (even strangers), and enemies as the entire Savage family.
“Is this real?” he asked, lowering the paper.
She nodded. “Until your application is approved or denied by the city commissioner and Supervillain Council, you’re provided special privileges that should help you stay alive the next time my brother comes looking for you.”
“Aside from the bizarre factor of applying to become a superhero, you did this to protect me?” he asked, startled.
It was moments like this, when she seemed almost kind, that he forgot how many people she had murdered before his eyes. In her own way, Keladry sometimes tried to do good, or more accurately, to be less evil.
“I didn’t know the answer to the last question,” she said. It was the first time she hadn’t been direct with him.
Kimber studied her briefly and read the question whose answer was blank.
“Source of Superpowers,” he read aloud. “Check all that apply.” The options included: radioactivity, bitten by wild animal/insect, nuclear explosion, and other (please explain).
It was the craziest application he’d ever seen. If not for Keladry’s grave expression, he would have laughed at the absurdity of it all. General Savage’s questions made more sense now that Kimber understood why the supervillain suspected he wanted to become a superhero.
“A drug overdose seems mild compared to a nuclear incident.” Hearing his words, he cursed himself silently.
“Drugs,” she repeated, a light going off in her face. “Morphine. That’s why you kept staring at the bottle under the bed.”
Kimber turned away. “Forget I said it.”
“It all makes sense now. You became addicted after your father’s accident. It ruined your career, almost killed you, and you moved here.”
He tensed, hating to hear the truth aloud. Rehab had been rough enough, when he’d been faced with his mental frailty and failure at life daily. For reasons he couldn’t identify, he hadn’t wanted Keladry to know and definitely didn’t want her to judge him for it.
Why did he care at all what she thought?
“You keep the morphine to torture yourself, right? Or maybe, one day you plan on suicide?” she pressed.
“Stop, Keladry. I don’t want to talk to you about this!”
“Why not?”
His chest felt tight, and he crumpled the application in his hand.
“It’ll take a month for everyone to evaluate your application,” she said when he didn’t speak. “The city favors you. It should be approved easily.”
“This is ridiculous. I’m no hero.”
“Look at how many people you saved.”
“They were only in danger because of me!” He lifted the form and ripped it into pieces then held it out to her. “You have made my life a living hell, Keladry. It stops now. Withdraw the application or I will.”
She accepted it. A flare of defiance was in her eyes. “No. I won’t withdraw it, and you wouldn’t know who to talk to in order to do it yourself.”
“Why are you doing this? Why does your family keep interfering in my life?” he demanded.
“I. Admire. You.” The statement was hostile and short, as if she despised him for forcing her to say it.
Kimber’s eyebrows went up. “You torture me, because you admire me?”
“If I were torturing you, you’d be in the dungeon of my lair,” she pointed out. “This protects you against my father and brother.” She lifted the application. Keladry looked away, and it was then Kimber noticed her discomfort, bordering on uncertainty.
“You have been protecting me in your own way,” he said slowly, circling a new instinct. “I can never condone the body count or your methods, but you … uh, try, I guess. You helped the residents of my apartment building, didn’t you?”
“Help is a strong word,” she objected.
“And you did it because I suggested it,” he said, ignoring her. “Were you also the one who texted me to evacuate the ER?”
Keladry shrugged.
“And now this.” He motioned to the superhero application. A strange sense was floating through him, a combination of surprise and disbelief. “You did these things for me, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know why I did them.”
He waited for more. She supplied no other explanation.
The two of them scrutinized one another, the tension between them more charged than before. Kimber didn’t know what to think or why it surprised him to the extent it did when he considered there was a part of the supervillainess-in-training that seemed very good.
“I keep the pills as a reminder of what I never again want to become,” he said finally in the heavy silence. “Every day, I’m tempted by them, and every day, I remember how it felt to tear my life apart and not be able to stop myself from doing it.” The truth was difficult to admit, and he waited for her reaction.
Keladry listened, head tilted, as if she were attempting to use her alleged superpower. “I had a chance to kill my brother and couldn’t do it,” she said. “But I did blow up his nuclear arsenal and forty of his special
force ninjas.”
A smile tugged up the corner of Kimber’s lips. Beneath her black outfits and murderous tendencies, Keladry was a woman as damaged and vulnerable to her world as he was to his. More importantly, she was trying to relate to him in her own unique, twisted way.
Rather than react as he had before, whenever she said something distinctly villainous, he chose his words carefully. “We’ve both been through a lot. But I don’t think I’m meant to be a superhero, as much as I appreciate your faith in me.”
“Your father was one,” she replied. “Maybe it runs in your family.”
“He told my stepmother to ask me about you the other day,” Kimber said with a shake of his head.
Keladry’s smile was mischievous. “I gave him a pass, since I was too weak to murder him. Next time, though, he won’t be as lucky. Warn him accordingly.”
“I don’t know what happened on that roof. I mean this with what respect I can muster, but I don’t want you anywhere near him ever again.”
“Just doing my job as a supervillain.”
Silence fell once more. Kimber’s newfound insight left his mind racing as he tried to put together a picture of who Keladry really was. Igor seemed to think she was a good supervillain. Although she had just admitted to murdering another forty people, Kimber found himself more interested in the idea she couldn’t hurt her brother. She was capable of love in some regard.
How could anyone be such an enigma?
Or was he finally drinking the Sand City Kool-Aid and becoming infatuated with a certain supervillainess-in-training?
Keladry’s phone buzzed, ending the long moment where they looked too long at one another. She checked it quickly.
“I’d avoid the bar district tonight,” she advised.
When she slid into villain mode, Kimber became uncomfortable. “Have you considered a different approach? One that doesn’t involve hurting so many people?”
“Don’t need to. It’s not like there’s a superhero in town who will stop me.” She winked and tucked the phone away. “Besides, it’s Tuesday night. Collateral damage will be minimal.”
Someone needed to stop her and her family. That’s not me, he thought. I’m no hero.
Was this the same denial that went through the heads of the other millions of people in the metro area? Someone should do something – but not me? Was this how the entire city ended up in the stranglehold of the Savages?
“If there were a superhero in town, wouldn’t that make you enemies with him or her?” he asked.
“Mortal enemies, sworn to take each other down.”
“And you want me to become that person?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” A flicker of genuine confusion crossed her features. “See ya around, Doc.” She breezed by him to the door.
“If Igor is still stalking me, tell him to stop,” he said firmly.
“Nope.” She strode out.
Kimber remained where he was. For a tiny moment, he had believed he had a grip on who she was and what their tepid relationship status was. Not quite friends – but potential to become something. When he took a larger view of the situation, he grew perplexed once more. She was acting in contradictory ways, protecting him now only to try to destroy him if his application was approved.
Not that it would be. Even if it were, he’d refuse such a position. He was too flawed, too undeserving, to be the kind of superheroes he saw in movies.
She had murdered forty eight people that he knew of and was getting ready to wreak havoc in the bar district. Why the fuck was he considering their friendship potential, when it was clear she was every bit the supervillainess she wanted to be?
He stood, disturbed by the duality of his own thoughts. No amount of collateral damage was acceptable in his mind, but … was he really the only person in Sand City willing to talk some sense into her or stop her from hurting anyone?
No. I’m not that guy.
Except there was no one else willing to step forward.
Doubt and anger raged a silent war within his mind, and he allowed himself to dwell on the possibility Keladry had been correct about his pity party. He pulled on a sweatshirt and dug his phone from his backpack. Kimber found himself reaching for the doorknob to his room, walking down the hall, and – with some awkwardness – asking Gary for a pair of shoes and to take him to the bar district.
He went through the motions, telling himself he wasn’t going to be a hero and then countering his own argument with the fact no one else could save the lives of those Keladry endangered this night. Either he stopped her now or treated those she hurt later. He was already involved in the outcome of tonight.
But he fought his immediate destiny, arguing with himself all the way across town.
Keladry had helped others because he told her to. What if he showed her a different path, one that didn’t involve mass murdering and destroying the city in order to take over the mafia her father ran? She had listened once. Would she listen again?
What if she didn’t?
What if she did? Was her submission of the superhero application on his behalf was a quiet cry for help? Acknowledgement the city needed saved?
It was this idea, that Keladry had more potential to be good than he initially thought, that finally conquered his doubt.
Twelve: Supervillains always cross the gray
“Just drop you off anywhere or …”
Gary’s question pulled Kimber from his thoughts. He glanced out the window and recognized Tapirs as they drove by.
“Yeah, anywhere. Then you get as far from this place as possible,” he said.
“You want me to pick you up later?”
“I’ll call you,” Kimber replied.
Gary’s look was inquisitive. Kimber wasn’t about to tell him what he was doing. He smiled tersely and got out of the car.
Gary pulled away.
Kimber tugged the hood of the borrowed sweatshirt over his head and gazed up and down the street, uncertain what part of the strip Keladry was targeting. It was a quiet night. None of the bars and restaurants had lines of customers or crowded entrances. Even so, he estimated there were two to three hundred people present along the block.
That Keladry considered this minimal collateral damage left him questioning himself anew. The bitch was crazy enough to blow up the street.
“What’re you doing here, Kimber?” he asked himself. “You’re no hero.”
He was debating what to do, and how to find her, when a sleek, black car pulled up in front of him and stopped.
Igor got out. “Doc, you can’t be here tonight,” he called.
Here I go. Kimber drew a deep breath. “Where’s Keladry?” he asked.
“Boss is busy. She wants you gone from here.”
“Remind her she’s not my boss,” Kimber replied, irritated. “And I’m not leaving. She’ll have to blow up the block with me here.”
Igor leaned down to grab a radio from his car. He spoke quietly into it. Before he could convey what Kimber suspected was another of Keladry’s orders, a second car – a silver Aston Martin – pulled up behind Igor’s.
The protective nanny yanked out his weapon without hesitation.
“Whoa, big guy,” Jermaine said, stepping out of the driver’s side. “I’m here to talk. Good ole daddy wants the doc alive for now.”
Kimber’s brow furrowed. He glanced at Igor, who hadn’t moved or lowered the weapon. “You should’ve thought of that yesterday when you tried to blow me up in the ER,” he snapped.
“I figured you’d escape. You have a knack for surviving,” Jermaine replied with a smile. “I’m here to offer you a deal, Doc.”
“What could you possibly have to offer me?” Kimber replied.
“I’ll drop you off at the city limits, unharmed, if you reveal the reason behind why you moved here to Sand City.”
Kimber’s brow furrowed. “That’s a pretty specific question, one your father already asked me,” he said. “It
wasn’t to become a superhero, if that’s what you think.”
“Then what’re you doing here tonight? You aren’t exactly dressed for a dining experience,” Jermaine said dryly.
“It’s not your concern, Jermaine.”
“Thunder,” the savage twin corrected him.
Kimber rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”
“My deal. Will you take it?” Jermaine asked.
“Why does it matter why I moved here?”
Jermaine glanced at Igor, who was frowning fiercely, his gun arm still raised and his other hand clenching the radio. “What do you know of our games, Doc?”
“More than I’d like to. You and your sister are competing to become your father’s successor by destroying the city and hurting innocent people.”
“Yes, but there’s more. Our father sends us tasks to complete, and whichever sibling completes the task first, wins that round. The game then advances to the next level.”
“Reader forbids you from speaking of this,” Igor said flatly to Jermaine.
“I don’t see her around.” Jermaine flung out his arms. “Tell her if she has something to say to me, to bring her ass here and not talk through a puppet! We’re both disarmed by the doctor so long as we stand within fifteen feet of him.”
“She’s on her way.”
“Good.” Jermaine returned his attention to Kimber. “Look, Doc, it’s in your best interest to leave town and it’s the only way you’ll outlive our games. It’s not like you have a place to live or work here anyway.”
The reminder stung, but rather than feel remotely swayed by Jermaine, Kimber grew angrier, as he had the first time he confronted Keladry’s twin.
“Five million people in Sand City, and I’m the only one willing to tell you to go fuck yourself,” he said.
Jermaine scowled. “Publicly, might I add. I’ve been watching the fucking video one of the patients in the ER posted on YouTube. I’m not at all happy with you, Doc.”
“I don’t give a shit. If anyone is thrown out of the city, it should be you and the rest of your family.”
“He’s stalling!” Reader said, striding out of an alley nearby. Her eyes were fiery, her form tense. “Thanks to you, Doc, I’m going to miss this opportunity to dispose of my brother’s backup ammo depo beneath the street!”
“If it saves the lives of everyone on the block, I’m okay with that,” Kimber replied.
Reader’s glare left him and settled on her brother. Her jaw clenched. “I already won this round, asshole.”
“Oh?” Jermaine asked with faux innocence. “I hadn’t heard. Does the doctor know what the task was?”
“I don’t care.” Kimber folded his arms across his chest.
“Father told us to find out why you left Chicago, using any means necessary, short of death,” Jermaine ignored him. “I planned to torture you, but I hear my sister found a more creative route.”
“What …” The superhero application. Kimber looked at Keladry, and it dawned on him she’d been toying with him earlier. Their alleged connection, her warning about avoiding the bar district tonight, her claim to want to protect him … did she manipulate him, so she could win some stupid game? “You told your family why I left Chicago?”
“Of course she did. It was part of the game,” Jermaine answered for her.
Keladry glanced at Kimber then back. “Sorry, Doc. I had to.”
“You’d betray anyone you had to in order to become your father’s successor.”
“Pretty sure that’s a given when you deal with a supervillainess,” she replied.
Kimber clenched his jaw. The rational side of him whispered for him not to be surprised, that he had always known what she was, while his feelings were scorched by the betrayal of his trust. He didn’t want anyone knowing about his past, let alone the three people in the city he definitely couldn’t trust. She’d revealed his secret to her fucked up family.
It wasn’t the first time Keladry Savage had surprised him, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. It didn’t change what he thought he saw in her, but he made a mental note to watch what he said around her.
“No deal, Jermaine,” he spoke quietly. “I’m here to stay for now. I plan on becoming an obstacle to both of you as much as possible. This city deserves better.”
“And you think you can stop us?” Jermaine challenged.
“Someone has to try.”
“New deal. This one is for you, sis,” the villain said, gaze on Keladry. “Kill him, and you and I can become what we once were, a team capable of taking out our asshole of a father.”
Kimber’s breath caught. He didn’t need to see Keladry’s expression to know this was the one thing her brother could offer her that she actually wanted. He had witnessed the look on her face the day she revealed her brother tried to kill her, and again earlier, when she admitted to not being able to murder him when she had the chance.
“I thought you said it wasn’t possible,” Keladry said guardedly after a pause.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” her brother replied. “Our father has tried to drive us apart for the past year. What if the only way to beat him is to work together?”
Kimber studied Jermaine, sensing deception. Keladry’s head was tilted to the side, as if she were attempting to read his mind. If what they said was true, she couldn’t, not when Kimber was so close to her. Was Jermaine counting on Kimber’s alleged power to block his lies?
The protective instinct stirred, and Kimber had the urge to punch Jermaine.
“I don’t believe you,” Keladry said in a hard tone.
“Really? I give you a choice between this fool and your own brother, and you choose him?” Jermaine snarled.
“I’m not choosing anyone until you convince me everything you said the other night no longer applies!” she snapped.
“Leave me out of this,” Kimber added. “This issue between you two existed long before me.”
“You put yourself in the middle, Doc, the night you saved my sister,” Jermaine shot back.
“Because you tried to murder her! You can’t believe a word he says, Keladry.”
“I know what I’m doing, Doc,” she snapped at him before focusing again on her brother. “Are you serious, Jermaine?”
Kimber glanced at Igor, whose features were long with worry. The nanny wasn’t buying Jermaine’s sincerity anymore than Kimber was. Was Keladry?
“I am,” Jermaine said firmly. He approached his sister and stopped in front of her, hands clasped behind his back. “If you don’t want him dead, then exile him. Take him to the city limits. I’m willing to bend, if it means we’ll team up against father again and win the city.”
“Father said not to kill him, so this isn’t you bending. It’s me not taking your bait,” Keladry said.
“That was this level of the games,” Jermaine replied smoothly. “Once the superhero application is approved or rejected, the doctor becomes fair game once more. At which point, Father will probably task us to kill him.”
She was quiet, pensive, her features betraying nothing about what she thought.
“I have a choice in this, too,” Kimber said and shifted his weight between his feet, “And I’m not going anywhere. If your father won’t let you kill me, then you can bet I’ll show up wherever you try to cause mayhem in this city and block all your efforts to hurt innocent people.”
Keladry turned at his calm statement. She motioned to Igor. “Put him in the car.”
Jermaine started to smile.
“My brother as well,” she added.
“Keladry –” Kimber objected.
“Reader –” her brother said simultaneously.
“Both of you get in the fucking car, or my ninjas end you where you stand!” she shouted.
On cue, masked men in black materialized out of the shadows surrounding them. No less than fifty of them circled the two cars and four people.
Keladry got into the passenger s
eat and closed the door. Igor circled the car and opened the door to the backseat, motioning to Kimber and Jermaine to get in.
Kimber cursed silently as he realized he had no real choice. Whatever Keladry’s plan was, he would rather wait and find out than die where he stood. He got into the car first, frustrated, his mind racing as he considered his options. He was unarmed and alone with two dangerous criminals. What chance did he have to survive?
Jermaine slid into the seat beside him. The tension in the car was stifling, and Igor turned on the air conditioner as he pulled away from the curb.
The sense of being utterly alone, of being the one in five million willing to try to stop the Savage twins, fed Kimber’s uncertainty about what was likely to happen. Whatever connection he experienced – or thought he did – with Keladry was nothing compared to the lifelong alliance she had with her brother. Part of him was convinced they were headed to the city line, while the other part of him expected Igor to take them to the river, where Keladry would shoot him and dump his body.
Helplessness was an enemy Kimber knew and hated after his struggle to recover from drug addiction. He’d experienced it during his fall to rock bottom then again when he was sober enough to understand the damage he’d done to those he cared about, to his own career and life. The final overdose meant to kill him came after his first month in rehab, when he realized the extent of suffering he had caused and decided he’d rather not live with this burden.
But he hadn’t died. He should have, but didn’t, and he awoke from a week-long coma with a renewed sense of purpose: to help others like himself as penance.
Seated in the backseat of the car, in the company of the Savage twins, he couldn’t stop thinking he wasn’t helping anyone by dying tonight or being exiled from the city.
Igor drove them through the downtown area. They were followed by a train of six or seven more dark cars, though Kimber wasn’t able to identify if Keladry or Jermaine’s henchmen followed.
As he watched the city lights and buildings morph into the suburbs, Kimber experienced an unexpected sense of loss. He didn’t want to leave the strange city that had accepted him when no one else would. He’d found a place that needed him as much as he needed it, a city suffering from the choice it’d made at some point in its past not to fight the supervillain-mob boss that controlled it.
One choice shouldn’t condemn someone forever. He’d learned this firsthand.
Maybe fate or luck had brought him here to give the city the same second chance he’d been provided. How he was supposed to do that, he couldn’t begin to imagine, but it had something to do with stepping between the twins and the city.
Too soon, Igor slowed the car.
Kimber’s heart began to race, and he gazed out the window. In the distance, the city’s lights lit up the underbellies of the low clouds and formed a halo around Sand City.
The other three occupants of the car got out. Kimber followed their leads more slowly. He had no weapons and doubted he’d be able to fight off all of them to escape. He’d come up with no decent alternative and silently cursed at his lack of plan for surviving.
“There it is,” Jermaine said.
Kimber looked up. A white sign was just ahead of the car on the side of the road.
End Sand City Limits, it read.
“Go, Doc,” Keladry said.
He faced her. Her gaze was hard. Anything he wanted to say to her died on his lips when he saw her implacable expression. It was then another thought bubbled forth from the maddening flurry in his mind. If fate had brought him here, it had also planted Keladry Savage directly into his life.
Maybe he didn’t need to save the city. Maybe he just needed to save her. He had seen the small ember of goodness in her heart that led her to help the people in his apartment building and to offer him protection.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
Jermaine snorted.
Keladry rolled her eyes but motioned for him to follow her. She led him a few feet away, out of earshot from the others.
“What?” she demanded.
Ignoring her defensive bluntness, Kimber drew a breath. “Have you ever considered leaving Sand City?”
“No.”
“Maybe you should think about it.”
“Why would I?” She appeared confused.
“Come with me, Keladry,” he said quietly.
Why did I say that? He thought, startled by his own words. When had he stopped viewing her as crazy and started to see her as the complicated woman she was? He didn’t know – but he didn’t regret what he’d said, either.
She gazed up at him, eyes widening in surprise. “You want me to request a transfer through the Supervillain Council?”
“Not exactly.” Kimber cleared his throat. “We can go somewhere where this villain insanity doesn’t exist, where you aren’t forced into these games,” he added with a glance towards the others. “We can both start over.” He resisted the urge to say more, to add too much meaning to an idea that sounded reckless the moment he gave it life by speaking it aloud.
“You want me to give up being a supervillain,” she said.
“Yes. You can do anything, go anywhere, be anyone. You can be good and walk away from the mob and life of crime before you end up dead or broken.”
“You want me to give up being me.”
“Don’t you think you’re taking this supervillain … thing too far? I mean, they aren’t real, outside of Sand City.”
“You want me to give up being me,” she repeated, anger flashing in her gaze. “I wouldn’t ask you to become a supervillain. I know it’s not who you are.”
“I’m not a superhero either, and you signed me up for it,” he pointed out.
“Becoming Sand City’s superhero would keep you in the city!”
“Is that why you did it, or was it for your daddy’s latest challenge?”
“Both!” Keladry drew her weapon. “If you have a reason to stay, you won’t leave like you did Chicago!”
“What happens if I stay? I become your mortal enemy? If you want me to stay, why would you make us enemies?”
Her jaw ticked, and her eyes were stormy. She didn’t answer.
“Look. I don’t want to argue about it,” he said, sensing she was preparing to either shoot him or walk away from him. “But I mean it. If you want to come with me, we can start over somewhere else.”
“But only if I change.”
“You’re a good person, or at least, you have the potential to become very good. You don’t have to change,” he said, perplexed. “I don’t mean that you need to be different. Just … be the person you already are buried beneath the black jumpsuits and mask.”
She studied him. She was tense again, and he had the feeling he’d only managed to piss her off more. Reviewing what he’d said, he had to admit it sounded worse out loud than it had in his head.
“You want me to become something I’m not, if I stay,” he continued. “How is what I’m asking any different?”
“You’ve never been able to see what’s in front of you.” She bit off the words. “You don’t choose to be a villain or hero. It’s a calling, one that’s been knocking at your door since you found me in the alley!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not that person, Keladry,” he said.
Keladry took a step back then two. She spun and started back towards the car, where Igor and her brother waited.
Kimber rubbed the back of his head, frustrated, and turned towards the sign, wishing he’d phrased his request differently while also relieved she hadn’t agreed. With nowhere to go and no idea how she would handle a life outside of Sand City, her agreement would send him nose diving into more trouble than he was already in. Was it so wrong, to want her to go with him, even if he couldn’t identify what he felt about the possibility?
The sound of a gunshot pierced the night.
Kimber jumped and then turned.
Jermaine dropped to the ground, a bullet hol
e in his forehead and the back of his head blown off. Keladry lowered the weapon and gazed down at the body of her brother.
Igor’s startled look mirrored Kimber’s.
Speechless, Kimber moved closer, unable to believe what he saw.
“This is who I am, Doc,” Keladry said quietly. She met his gaze. Hers was cold, as if her anger had frozen into white rage. “I’m not going with you, and I sure as hell am not about to change. I’m the next Sand City supervillainess, and I don’t give a fuck what you think about it.”
Kimber’s heart sank to his feet.
“Don’t come back here, Doc. That goes for you too, Igor,” Keladry added, motioning her nanny away from the car. “You’re both officially expelled from the city.”
“Reader –” Igor objected.
“This isn’t a request, Igor! If you disobey me, I’ll throw you in the dungeon!”
Her nanny fell silent.
“Reader!” Kimber found his voice.
She faced him, and he saw the flicker of agony in her gaze as what she’d done sank in, before her gaze hardened again. He understood the kind of pain that came with losing everything he’d loved.
“Leave, Doc,” she ordered in an unsteady voice.
I don’t want it to end this way. Confused by his own thoughts and feelings, as well as the sense that his destiny was somehow intertwined with the city’s, Kimber was silent.
Keladry turned away.
“Wait,” Kimber said. He approached her with caution and licked his lips, struggling to sort through the myriad of emotions and thoughts flashing through his mind. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” She lifted her gaze to his.
“I’m standing by the corpse of someone you executed, and all I can think about is how I want to take away your pain right now,” he said, baffled by his own indifference to the body beside his feet.
“Are you sure you’re not a superhero?” she retorted with no heat.
“A superhero would’ve stopped you.”
“Or tried to save his supervillain arch-nemesis from crossing the gray.”
“That’s what that means,” he said softly. “That was your point of no return.”
“It was. I’ll do the same to you and Igor, if you return.”
“Is that what we are? Arch-nemeses?” he asked in a hushed tone.
“It’s the only way this … we can ever be,” she replied. “I can’t be good. You can’t be evil. But we can co-exist in the same city.”
“I’m not all-good,” he countered. “I’m deeply flawed.”
“So am I. Those pieces of goodness you’ve seen – those are my flaws.”
“They seem to occur often around me.”
“Maybe one day you’ll stoop to my level to try to stop me,” she said.
Kimber started to smile, not caring how inappropriate it was. “It could’ve been different.”
“No, it couldn’t have,” she persisted. “Now, get the fuck out of my city, Doc, unless you’re ready to don a cape.”
Is she serious?
“Take care of Igor,” she added in a hasty whisper. Reader spun away and walked to the idling car. She got in and slammed the door.
Kimber watched her drive away, overwhelmed by the whirlwind evening and the fact he had nowhere to go.
He wasn’t a superhero – he never would be. But as Reader’s car raced towards the city, he couldn’t help wishing he could be.
“We got a long walk through the forest to the neighboring city, Doc,” Igor said from behind him.
If she truly crossed the gray, she wouldn’t care what happened to Igor, Kimber thought. Reader wasn’t sending them away because she was a supervillainess. She was sending them away because she cared.
Hope unfurled within him. He didn’t know what to do with it anymore than he did where to go.
Turning away from the city and its supervillainess, Kimber glanced up into Igor’s face. The large nanny’s eyes were sorrowful.
“We’ll get through this, Igor,” Kimber said, sensitive to the man’s suffering. “I can sell my phone for enough money to get us through a few days in a hotel. We’ll brainstorm where to go from there.”
“We might need a phone. I can kill people with one punch,” Igor held up his massive fist. “Then you can grab their wallets.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Igor nodded.
Together, they began walking into the darkness.
I can still save her. Somehow.
SUPERVILLAINESS
PART ONE: IT’S NOT EASY BEING EVIL
PART TWO: IT’S NOT EASY BEING GOOD
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